No, Adele isn’t number one.
For that honor, we have to dip back into the post-Vinyl 1981, when Queen released a throwaway ‘Greatest Hits’ album. The collection of smashes sold more than 6 million copies according to the Official Charts Company, the only album in British history to achieve that mark.
Turns out greatest hits compilations sold incredibly well in the analog era, before MP3s, burned CD-Rs and Spotify playlists made compilations an afterthought. Back in the day, it was actually hard to cleanly compile all of those great songs, which made them perfect collectibles and gifts. That explains the mega-success of greatest hits releases from groups like the Eagles, and on the British chart, number two is actually an Abba greatest hits album.
Amazingly, both Queen and Abba both have a pair of greatest hits albums in the top 50. Here’s the complete list, complete with the release date of the album.
1) Queen –‘Greatest Hits’ (1981)
2) Abba – ‘Gold: Greatest Hits’ (1992)
3) The Beatles – ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ (1967)
4) Adele – ‘21’ (2011)
5) Oasis – ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory’ (1995)
6) Michael Jackson – ‘Thriller’ (1982)
7) Pink Floyd – ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ (1973)
8) Dire Straits – ‘Brothers In Arms’ (1985)
9) Michael Jackson – ‘Bad’ (1987)
10) Queen – ‘Greatest Hits II’ (1991)
11) Fleetwood Mac – ‘Rumours’ (1977)
12) Madonna – ‘The Immaculate Collection’ (1990)
13) Amy Winehouse – ‘Back To Black’ (2006)
14) Simply Red – ‘Stars’ (1991)
15) Shania Twain – ‘Come On Over’ (1997)
16) Bob Marley And The Wailers – ‘Legend’ (1984)
17) James Blunt – ‘Back To Bedlam’ (2003)
18) The Verve – ‘Urban Hymns’ (1997)
19) Meat Loaf – ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ (1977)
20) The Beatles – ‘1’ (2000)
21) Simon And Garfunkel ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ (1970)
22) Original Soundtrack – ‘Dirty Dancing’ (1987)
23) Leona Lewis – ‘Spirit’ (2007)
24) Michael Buble – ‘Crazy Love’ (2009)
25) Dido – ‘No Angel’ (1999)
26) David Gray – ‘White Ladder’ (1998)
27) Adele – ‘25’ (2015)
28) The Corrs – ‘Talk On Corners’ (1997)
29) The Spice Girls – ‘Spice’ (1996)
30) Lady Gaga – ‘The Fame’ (2008)
31) Coldplay – ‘A Rush Of Blood To The Head’ (2002)
32) Dido – ‘Life For Rent’ (2003)
33) Kings Of Leon – ‘Only By The Night’ (2008)
34) Take That – ‘Beautiful World’ (2006)
35) Keane – ‘Hopes And Fears’ (2004)
36) U2 – ‘The Joshua Tree’ (1987)
37) Jeff Wayne – ‘The War Of The Worlds’ (1978)
38) Scissor Sisters – ‘Scissor Sisters’ (2004)
39) Phil Collins – ‘But Seriously’ (1989)
40) Coldplay – ‘X&Y’ (2005)
41) Alanis Morissette – ‘Jagged Little Pill’ (1995)
42) Mike Oldfield – ‘Tubular Bells’ (1973)
43) Travis – ‘The Man Who’ (1999)
44) Tracy Chapman – ‘Tracy Chapman’ (1988)
45) Coldplay – ‘Parachutes’ (2000)
46) Abba – ‘Greatest Hits’ (1975)
47) Original Soundtrack – ‘Grease’ (1978)
48) Robbie Williams – ‘I’ve Been Expecting You’ (1998)
49) Ed Sheeran – ‘X’ (2014)
50) Norah Jones – ‘Come Away With Me’ (2002)
Image by Mark Kent, snapped at a 2012 show featured Adam Lambert and surviving members of Queen. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC by 2.0), check out more pics from that show here.
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